old King Hussein of Mecca that if he'd
raise an Arab army to use against the Turks, there should be a
united Arab kingdom afterward under a ruler of their own
choosing. The kingdom was to include Syria, Arabia and
Palestine. The French agreed. Well, the Arabs raised the army;
Emir Feisul, King Hussein's third son, commanded it; Lawrence
did so well that he became a legend. The result was, Allenby
could concentrate his army on this side of the Jordan and
clean up. He made a good job of it. The Arabs were naturally
cock-a-hoop."

I suggested that the Arabs with that great army could have
enforced the contract, but he laughed again.

"They were being paid in gold by the British, and had Lawrence to
hold them together. The flow of gold stopped, and Lawrence was
sent home. Somebody at the Foreign Office had changed his mind.
You see, they were all taken by surprise at the speed of
Allenby's campaign. The Zionists saw their chance, and claimed
Palestine. No doubt they had money and influence. Perhaps it
was Jewish gold that had paid the wages of the Arab army.
Anyhow, the French laid claim to Syria. By the time the war was
over the Zionists had a hard-and-fast guarantee, the French claim
to Syria had been admitted, and there wasn't any country left
except some Arabian desert to let the Arabs have. That's the
situation. Feisul is in Damascus, going through the farce of
being proclaimed king, with the French holding the sea-ports and
getting ready to oust him. The Zionists are in Jerusalem,
working like beavers, and the British are getting ready to pull
out as much as possible and leave the Zionists to do their own
worrying. Mesopotamia is in a state of more or less anarchy.
Egypt is like a hot-box full of explosive--may go off any minute.
The Arabs would like to challenge the world to mortal combat,
and then fight one another while the rest of the world pays
the bill--"

"And you?"

"The French, for instance. Their army is weak at the moment.
They've neither men nor money--only a hunger to own Syria. They
don't play what the English call 'on side.' They play a mean
game. The French General Staff figure that if Feisul should
attack them now he might beat them. So they've conceived the
brilliant idea of spreading sedition and every kind of political
discontent into Palestine and across the Jordan, so that if the
Arabs make an effort they'll make it simultaneously in both
countries. Then the Briti